French Film Festival

22nd Annual French Film Festival: February 15 – 21, 2019

The 22nd New Orleans French Film Festival, one of the longest running foreign language festivals in the country, showcases excellence in contemporary and classic francophone Cinema for audiences of about 4,000 at the Prytania Theatre, the oldest single-screen movie house operating in Louisiana.

Live music and lectures will accompany a curated selection of French, French language films and a program of short films. On opening night, prior to the opening film, join a dedicated audience of Francophiles, cinephiles, sponsors, and patrons for at an invite-only Patron Party and is exclusively for French Film Festival Patron Pass holders and members of the New Orleans Film Society’s Producer’s Circle and Executive Producer’s Circle.

Passes are available now, go to the Passes and Tickets page on the left hand bar to get yours!

Individual tickets will go on sale on January 29th for the New Orleans Film Society members and #FFF2019 passholders, and on February 5th for the public.

All screenings, music, and lectures will take place at the Prytania Theatre, 5339 Prytania St, New Orleans.

Free parking on street around the theater.Public transit three blocks from the streetcar stop on St. Charles and Jefferson (green line), six blocks from the bus stop on Magazine and Jefferson (line 11).
ADA accessibility

If you are interested in volunteering during the French Film Festival, please let us know by signing up here.

New Orleans Film Society’s Scene Stealer, Producer’s Circle, and Executive Producer’s Circle members get two complimentary French Film Festival patron passes. Moviegoer and Take Two members get $15 off of passes.

February 15, 7:30 pm, the Prytania Theatre DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE

Director Antony Cordier in attendance.
Gaspard’s family run a zoo, which he has been avoiding for years. When his father decides to get remarried, Gaspard must return for the wedding. Afraid to show up alone, he convinces a stranger, Lucy, to join him as his date. Young French actors Félix Moati (Sink or Swim) and Laetitia Dosch (My King) share the lead in this hilarious and witty family reunion story.

February 16, 1:45pm, The Prytania Theatre

Transmedia artist Pascal Giacomini spends a month in Port-au-Prince working with a group of Vodou practitioners and artists to collectively create large metal sculptures from recycled materials sourced from the trash on the streets.

February 17, 12:00pm + February 20, 12:00pm, The Prytania Theatre

February 17, 2:15pm + February 19, 12:00pm, The Prytania Theatre

Adapted from the 18th-century novel by Denis Diderot, the film stars Anna Karina as Suzanne Simonin, a young woman removed from her family home to become a nun against her will, becoming an allegorical figure of freedom of speech and revolt.

February 17, 5:00pm, The Prytania Theatre DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE

February 17, 7:45pm & February 19, 6:00pm, The Prytania Theatre DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE

WORLD PREMIERE: Grammy-winning Louisiana band Lost Bayou Ramblers push the boundaries of Cajun music and breathe new life into the Louisiana French language through their genre-bending music. Followed by a live music set from Lost Bayou Ramblers to celebrate the film's World Premiere.

February 18, 5:45pm, The Prytania Theatre

February 18, 7:15pm, The Prytania Theatre DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE

In this Venice Film Festival and True/False winner, director Claire Simon goes behind closed doors during the months-long admissions process at France’s most selective film school, La Fémis, where thousands of hopefuls apply for only 40 available slots.

February 19, 8:00pm + February 21, 12:00pm, The Prytania Theatre

Miriam and Antoine have divorced, and Miriam is seeking sole custody of their son, Julien, to protect him from a father she claims is violent. As the conflict between the couple escalates, Julien becomes a hostage in the heartbreaking battle.

February 20, 6:00pm, The Prytania Theatre DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE

February 20, 7:45pm, The Prytania Theatre

At once an intimate chronicle of a romance and a sprawling portrait of gay life in early 1990s France, Sorry Angel follows the intertwining journeys of Jacques, a worldly, HIV-positive Parisian writer confronting his own mortality, and Arthur, a curious, carefree university student just beginning to live.

February 21, 5:30pm, The Prytania Theatre

The legendary Jean-Luc Godard adds to his iconoclastic legacy with this provocative collage film essay, which was the winner of the first Special Palme d'Or to be awarded in the history of the Cannes Film Festival in 2018.

February 21, 7:45 pm, the Prytania Theatre

In Christian Petzold’s brilliant and haunting modern-day adaptation of Anna Seghers’s 1942 novel, Transit Visa, Georg, a German refugee (Franz Rogowski, Happy End), flees to Marseille assuming the identity of a recently deceased writer whose papers he is carrying. There he delves into the delicate and complex culture of the refugee community, becoming enmeshed in the lives of a young mother and son and falling for a mysterious woman named Marie (Paula Beer, Frantz).

New this year, the French Film Festival partners with Krewe du Kanaval to curate a selection of musicians with connections to Haiti. Local and visiting musicians will perform live before film screenings. Krewe du Kanaval was founded by Arcade Fire’s Win Butler and Régine Chassagne and members of Preservation Hall in 2015 to celebrate and strengthen the bond between Haiti and New Orleans.

Bruce Sunpie Barnes (Guitar and vocals)
Friday, February 15th, 7:00PM-7:30PM
Prior to the Opening Night Film: Gaspard at the Wedding

Sabine McCalla (Cello and vocals)
Saturday, February 16th, 1:30PM-2:00PM
Prior to the screening of Out of Chaos

Damas “Fanfan” Louis (Drums)
Sunday, February 17th, 1:45PM-2:15PM
Prior to the screening of The Nun

In addition to the Krewe du Kanaval curation above, festival-goers will enjoy two more special music performances:

Camille Lenain GAC (Spinning French vinyl)
Friday, February 15th, 5:30PM-7:00PM
French Film Festival Patron Party

Lost Bayou Ramblers
Sunday, February 17th, 8:45PM
The Grammy-winning Louisiana band will perform a special live music set in celebration of the World Premiere of On Va Continuer!, after the film screening.